Due to increasing awareness of physician concerns regarding patient safety, the use of disposable syringe-based medical injector systems has become standard hospital practice. The problem for patients, physicians, and the healthcare system in general is that typically proprietary syringe and medical injector systems are costly. A significant cost arises because in the consumable portion of the system only matched proprietary syringes and plungers will work with the proprietary system. Adaptors for the consumables which can provide an interface with fixed system components could provide a more cost effective solution while still providing safety to the patient. Additionally, there is the significant health risk of air being entrapped in the syringe body during connection to the system. A syringe which can safely release air entrapped during connection to the adaptor components will provide increased safety while continuing to provide better options for the patient.
Currently, many hospitals use CT injection systems such as Medrad's Stellant System or PolyTen Plastics syringe adapter systems. Various systems of the prior art are releasable, disposable, front-loading medical syringe systems for the controlled medical electro-mechanical injection.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,136 to Trull et al. shows a front-load syringe injector system that includes a front-load injector having mounted on a front face a detachably engageable adapter. A driving head is engaged with a drive mechanism of the injector and the driving head disengageably engages a plunger mounted in a syringe mounted on the adapter. At least one of the plunger and driving head and syringe elements interacts with the adapter to effect engagement and disengagement of the plunger and driving head and syringe with respect to one another. Flanges on the injector fit into the adapter.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,858 to D. Reilly et al. discloses a front-loading syringe having a movable plunger for injecting liquid that is rotatably mountable on a front wall of an injector housing. The plunger has an interference fit in sealed relationship with respect to the syringe by a first quick release mechanism. At the same time, the plunger is connected to an injector drive mechanism by a second releasable mechanism. An injection end of the syringe comprises an injector portion of reduced diameter inside a screw-threaded attachment portion of larger diameter, and may include loop-shaped reinforcing handle portions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,764,466 to P. Staats et al. discloses a syringe adapter that includes a channel for receiving a rearward end of a syringe. First and second mounting flanges on the adapter overlay a portion of the channel, to cooperate with mounting flanges on a rearward end of the syringe, so that the syringe mounting flanges may be inserted between the adapter mounting flanges, and then rotated in the channel behind the adapter mounting flanges, to thereby lock the syringe to the adapter. The adapter further includes one or more locking pins, which in a locked position extend across the channel, to block the syringe from rotating in the channel and thereby prevent a syringe from being dismounted from the adapter. A collar incorporated in the adapter interacts with a drive ram of the injector to move the locking pins into their locked position whenever the ram is forward of a rearwardmost position. A ram tip adapter includes a movable member having a connector for engaging a rearward face of a plunger.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,597,246 to Fago et al. discloses a front-loading injector, for preventing leakage of spilled fluid from an external surface of a syringe into the vicinity of the drive ram. A sealing gasket may be incorporated into the front face of the injector housing, for mating to the rearward circular edge of the cylindrical body of a syringe. Alternatively, sealing and locking functions may be performed by a single structure on the rearward end of the syringe. Leakage may be prevented by including a non-planar sealing flange on the syringe, positioned on the syringe forward of the locking structure, or by a two-piece structure, including a syringe and a separate leakage stopping washer for surrounding the syringe to halt the flow of, fluid along the exterior of the syringe. The syringe may include an annularly discontinuous flange forward of the locking structure, for providing mechanical support for the syringe against the injector.
An object of the invention is a simpler, lower cost, yet safe syringe adapter and plunger adapter combination for CT/MRI syringes.